Month: September 2017

Central African President Pleads to UN: Don’t Forget Us

Posted on by SeeAF

The president of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadera, on Tuesday pleaded with the world to not forget his country and urged the U.N. to bolster its peace-keeping force amid growing violence that threatens to spin the country out of control.

Thousands have died and a fifth of Central Africans have fled a conflict that broke out after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka (anti-machete) militias.

Fighting on the increase

Although unrest has since subsided, fighting has spiked this year and the United Nations warned this month that ethnic fighting could descend again into a much larger conflict if combatants are not disarmed.

“Central Africa is at a critical moment in its history. We need the support of our friends; there are risks that we’ll be forgotten,” Touadera told a news conference ahead of a high-level meeting at the U.N. General Assembly.

Violence has escalated since former colonial power France last year ended its peacekeeping mission in the country, which once had as many as 2,000 soldiers. France has grown concerned by events, although officials say Paris is unlikely to return to Central Africa unless the capital were under threat.

The violence continues despite a peace deal signed between the government and rival factions in Rome last month and a 13,000-strong U.N. mission (MINUSCA), which will see its mandate renewed in November.

“The only force capable of ensuring security is the United Nations,” Touadera said. “The capacities of MINUSCA in terms of men and equipment have to be strengthened.”

Weak security forces

National security forces are too weak to tackle a multitude of armed groups and counter the spillover from conflicts in neighboring countries. Diplomats have also said that Touadera does not have the political strength to impose central government rule.

Touadera bemoaned the departure of France’s Operation Sangaris, but also the withdrawal of about 2,000 American and Uganda forces that were fighting the Ugandan rebel group The Lord’s Resistance Army and the withdrawal of MINUSCA’s Congolese battalion in the west.

“All of this has created a vacuum that the MINUSCA must fill,” he said.

 
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UN seeks to rally foreign backing for new Libyan peace plan

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TUNIS – The United Nations is seeking to marshal international support this week for a new push to break a political stalemate in Libya and end the turmoil that followed the country’s 2011 uprising.

The world body’s Libya envoy, Ghassan Salame, is expected to set out an “action plan” on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Wednesday that will propose amending a 2015 peace deal that quickly stalled.

The U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) set up under the December 2015 deal has never fully established itself in Tripoli, leaving Libya with three competing governments aligned with rival armed alliances.

Hamstrung by internal splits in its nine-member leadership, or Presidency Council, the GNA has been unable to tackle Libya’s acute liquidity crisis, save collapsing public services or bring powerful militias to heel.

Though oil production has partially recovered and local forces ousted Islamic State from their North African stronghold of Sirte last year, security vacuums in central and southern Libya persist and armed groups control the informal economy.

Eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar has gradually strengthened his position on the ground, with support from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Lauded by allies for his anti-Islamist stance, Haftar is accused by foes of seeking to re-impose military rule that they fought to overthrow when they toppled veteran ruler Moammar Gadhafi six years ago.

“The most important thing is to convince Haftar that a peaceful solution is better than a military one,” said Karim Mezran of the Atlantic Council, a U.S. think-tank.

“You have to convince the Egyptians and the Emiratis who are his main supporters to reduce that support.”

Fragmentation

Salame, who took up his post in August, is expected to propose reducing the unwieldy GNA Presidency Council to three members and it would then nominate a new transitional government, diplomats and analysts say.

But securing changes to the 2015 deal would need the approval of a barely functional eastern-based parliament.

The European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on the head of that parliament, Agila Saleh, accusing him of stalling Libya’s political process.

A delegation from the eastern parliament is expected to start negotiating with members of its Tripoli-based rival assembly. They are under pressure to reach an agreement before Dec. 17, when opponents of the 2015 deal say it expires.

Salame must also balance calls for new elections with the need to prepare a legal framework in which they can take place, diplomats say.

Before elections “you need a timetable to do the necessary preparation … but at the same time you need a government that can govern and unify the political, economic and social and military institutions of the country and deliver services in that interim period,” said a senior Western diplomat.

Some armed groups have cemented their positions since 2015, while political factions across Libya have become even more splintered.

“Now the problem is that those factions have fragmented internally,” said Claudia Gazzini, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group. “It’s even more difficult to solicit representative views.”

Elections would require an electoral law, and possibly a referendum to endorse a new constitution. In 2014, elections were challenged, leading to a major escalation of conflict and the division of Libya’s key institutions.

“Of course it’s not going to be easy, and once [Salame] makes the announcement there’ll be some who will not see advantage out of it,” said the Western diplomat.
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Cuba Again Denies Role in ‘Health Attacks’ on US Diplomats

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The Cuban government on Tuesday again denied any involvement in or any knowledge of a mysterious series of health incidents that have affected American diplomats in Havana.

Cuba also strongly objected to President Donald Trump’s critical comments about the island in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

At a meeting on law enforcement cooperation in Washington on Tuesday, Cuba’s top diplomat for the Americas, Josefina Vidal, said Cuba has never and would never commit or allow what Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has described as “health attacks” on any foreign diplomat on its territory.

“Cuba strictly observes its obligations to protect foreign diplomats on its soil,” the Cuban Embassy in Washington said in a statement.

“Cuba has never perpetrated nor will it ever perpetrate actions of this nature, and has never permitted nor will it ever permit any third-party use of its territory for this purpose,” it said.

It said the government had ordered investigations into the incidents and asked for cooperation from U.S. authorities, which it called “essential.”

At least 21 members of the American diplomatic community in Havana have suffered from symptoms, including brain damage, believed to have come from some sort of sonic attack since late last year. The most recent incident was in August.

On Trump’s U.N. speech, the Cuban statement was sharp, calling his remarks “disrespectful, unacceptable and meddling,” especially while the meeting in Washington was taking place.

“The Cuban delegation voiced a strong protest,” it said.

Trump has vowed to roll back the Obama administration’s rapprochement with Cuba and has said he will not further ease sanctions until Havana adopts democratic reforms.

In his speech, he called the Cuban government “corrupt and destabilizing.”
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US Attorney General Sessions Steps Up ‘Sanctuary’ Critique After Setbacks

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U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped up the Trump administration’s critique of so-called sanctuary cities on Tuesday, saying local and state policies to limit cooperation with immigration enforcement are a criminal’s “best friend.”

Sessions’ remarks, at a gathering of law enforcement authorities in Portland, Oregon, came days after repudiation of his stance against the sanctuary movement in separate actions by a federal judge in Chicago and the California legislature.

The judge in Chicago on Friday barred the Justice Department from withholding public safety grants to cities unless they allowed U.S. immigration authorities unlimited access to local jails and provided 48 hours’ notice before releasing individuals sought for deportation.

On Saturday, California lawmakers voted to make California a sanctuary state, approving a bill barring local governments from forcing undocumented immigrants to spend extra time in jail just to allow immigration agents to take them into their custody.

But under a compromise negotiated with Governor Jerry Brown, the bill allows local police to notify the federal government if they have arrested an undocumented immigrant with a felony record. It also allows immigration agents access to local jails.

Sessions called on local jurisdictions that have sought to shield illegal immigrants from deportation efforts to reconsider, and he urged Brown not to sign the California bill into law.

President Donald Trump and his administration have insisted that the deportation crackdown is aimed at illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes, and that sanctuary measures contribute to rising crime.

“Such policies undermine the moral authority of law and undermine the safety of the jurisdictions that adopt them,” Sessions said. “That makes a sanctuary city a trafficker, smuggler or gang member’s best friend.”

He cited cases in Oregon and California in which illegal immigrants were charged with committing violent crimes after being arrested for relatively minor offenses by local police and then released, despite federal requests to keep them in custody.

Sanctuary supporters counter that enlisting police cooperation in deportation actions undermines community trust in local law enforcement, particularly among Latinos, and they question whether Trump is really targeting dangerous criminals.

“We’re not soldiers of Donald Trump or the federal immigration service,” Brown said in a CNN interview on Tuesday.

He called the measure passed by California’s legislature “a well-balanced bill.”

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a letter to Sessions that Oregon state law dating back to 1987 prohibits state and local police from enforcing federal immigration law.
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US Navy Blames Collisions on Operations Pace, Failure to Prioritize Safety

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The U.S. Navy is blaming the high pace of operations, budget uncertainty and naval leaders who put their mission before safety for recent deadly incidents at sea.

The destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker last month off the coast of Singapore, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead and five injured. And the USS Fitzgerald, another destroyer, collided with a container ship in waters off Japan in June, killing seven sailors.

The collisions are still under investigation, but at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, the chief naval officer, Admiral John Richardson, said a failure of leadership throughout the service was the main contributing factor in the deadly collisions.

“I own this problem,” Richardson testified.

He vowed to make safety the most important goal of the Navy in the wake of recent events, acknowledging that commanders of vessels on forward deployments too often put the mission first, at the expense of safety.

“Only with those [safety certifications] done and the maintenance properly done can we expect to deploy effectively and execute the mission,” he said.

At the start of Tuesday’s committee hearing, U.S. Senator John McCain extended his “deepest condolences” on behalf of all Americans to the family members of those killed, some of whom sat in the hearing room. The USS John S. McCain was named in honor of the Arizona Republican’s father and grandfather, both of whom were Navy admirals.

Longer hours

John Pendleton, an expert on defense readiness issues with the Government Accountability Office, told lawmakers reductions in ship crew sizes had led to longer working hours for sailors — up to 100 hours per week in some cases.

Pendleton said he was skeptical that the Navy would be able to increase readiness until aggressive deployment schedules and other demands on the force were decreased.

Richardson said the Navy was closely investigating sleep deprivation among crews, causing McCain, the chairman of the committee, to question why the Navy was not making immediate changes.

“I think I know what 100 hours a week does to people over time,” McCain said. “I’m not sure you need a study on it.”

Richardson also warned that the increased deployment tempo frequently leaves sailors with insufficient time to prepare for missions, and it leaves the Navy with too few vessels. According to the Navy, the service has been trying to fulfill duties that require more than 350 ships with only about 275 ships available.

Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer likened the situation to a balloon that has been filled with too much air and cannot be stretched any further.

“If you squeeze it, it pops,” he said.

There have been two additional Navy incidents in the Pacific region this year.

The USS Antietam ran aground near Yosuka, Japan, in January, and the USS Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing vessel in May.
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Trump Talked Tough, but What’s His Plan for Denuclearizing North Korea?

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President Donald Trump warned North Korea over its nuclear weapons development in his debut address to the U.N. General Assembly, but he failed to offer a concrete strategy on how to denuclearize the communist state, experts say.

Speaking before world leaders gathered at U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday, the president of the United States, who has recently escalated his rhetoric against North Korea, doubled down on unleashing scathing criticisms toward “the depraved regime.”

If Pyongyang launches an attack on the U.S. or its allies, Trump said, there is “no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

Rand Corporation defense analyst Bruce Bennett told VOA’s Korean Service that Trump’s statements, were delivered in terms that the regime would understand, and meant to be a clear message to Kim about what will happen if North Korea uses its nuclear weapons.

“President Trump is being clear that the United States will not accept North Korean nuclear weapon employment,” Bennett said. “The president is saying that if North Korea starts a war and uses nuclear weapons, the North Korean regime will be destroyed.”

Trump’s warnings, although strong and resolute, were in the context of a U.S. response to a North Korean attack, said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst who is now senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“It is less indicative of a potential U.S. military attack to prevent Pyongyang from completing development of an ICBM” (intercontinental ballistic missile) capable of threatening the U.S. with nuclear weapons, Klingner said. “Trump’s speech was a call to action by the U.N. to more forthrightly respond to North Korea’s actions which pose a threat to all U.N. member nations, and not just the United States and its allies.”

Michael Green, a former Asia adviser to former president George W. Bush, also said Trump’s remarks indicate the possibility of a “fierce” U.S. response should North Korea attack, but not a pre-emptive strike to stop North Korea’s weapons programs.

Some experts noted Trump failed to take advantage of the rare opportunity to more fully articulate how the U.S. would denuclearize the regime that is posing a dire threat. By conducting tests of a nuclear device and various missiles including ICBMs and mid-range rockets that flew over Japan, the regime this year proved to the world that it is making progress toward its stated goal of developing a nuclear-armed missile that could hit the U.S. mainland.

“This is very strong rhetoric from President Trump,” said Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at the Center for Naval Analyses. “The question is, what is the strategy behind the speech?”

Frank Jannuzi, president and CEO of the Mansfield Foundation, said Trump should have done more than flex his muscles in the address.

“I feel that the president’s remarks to the U.N. on North Korea present more of a posture than a policy … and there’s really nothing new about Trump’s strategy to respond decisively to any [North Korean] attack on the United States or its allies,” Jannuzi said. “We should be presenting to the international community a comprehensive plan of how we intend to pursue peace and security and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula.”
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3 Members of Congress Arrested at Trump Tower Street Protest

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Three Democratic members of Congress have been arrested on disorderly conduct charges at a protest outside Trump Tower.

 

U.S. Reps. Raul Grijalva, of Arizona; Luis Gutierrez, of Illinois; and Adriano Espaillat, of New York, were among a small group of demonstrators who sat down in the street on New York’s Fifth Avenue on Tuesday and refused to move.

 

The lawmakers were handcuffed and led away. Police say they were issued desk appearance tickets and released.

 

The protesters were demanding that Congress pass legislation protecting thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

 

Protest organizers said before the event the lawmakers planned to get arrested.

 

President Donald Trump delivered an address at the United Nations earlier Tuesday. The Republican was scheduled to stay at Trump Tower afterward but wasn’t present for the protest.
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US Confirms Syrian Army Crossed Deconfliction Zone in Deir el-Zour

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U.S.-led coalition forces say the Russian-backed Syrian army has crossed the Euphrates River in Deir el-Zour in its bid to regain control of the Syrian city, a move that could result in a faceoff with U.S.-backed fighters in the city’s east.

“We confirm Russian and Syrian regime forces have moved east of the Euphrates River,” Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, told VOA on Tuesday. “The Russians are providing air support to Syrian regime operations to reclaim territorial control over the area around [Deir el-Zour].”

The campaign for Deir el-Zour, one of the Islamic State militant group’s major strongholds in Syria, began this month. The Syrian army, supported by Shi’ite militias and Russian air power, began advancing from the western side of the city and broke a three-year IS siege of an enclave the regime had controlled.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) started a separate operation from east side of the city. They made rapid gains, capturing 300 square kilometers along the eastern riverbank.

The Euphrates River, which runs across the city, acted as a dividing line between the two sides, and was considered part of the deconfliction zone between the U.S.-led coalition and Russia, intended to separate their areas of operation in Syria and prevent inadvertent clashes.

According to SANA, the Syrian state-run news agency, the Syrian army crossed the river using specially constructed pontoon bridges, as Russian warplanes provided aerial protection.

The news agency said Syrian army units have secured several points in Mazloum and Marrat villages on the eastern side of the city, and reportedly have advanced toward a major gas field known as Conoco.

“IS endured heavy losses in arms and men,” SANA reported.

Amaq, Islamic State’s media wing, confirmed the development. It claimed militant fighters had carried out suicide attacks that trapped dozens of the advancing troops in Marrat village.

Earlier this month, the U.S.-led coalition said it was closely monitoring the Syrian army’s approach to the river. There are concerns about possible clashes on the river’s eastern bank between Syrian army units and the SDF.

SDF commanders said they had taken fire from Syrian regime forces even before they crossed the Euphrates.

On Saturday, a Russian airstrike wounded six SDF fighters in an industrial area that had been recaptured from IS militants near the river. Coalition troops advising and assisting the SDF were present but unhurt, according to a statement by the U.S.-led coalition.

The attack “underscores the need for all parties to recommit themselves to deconflict their operations responsibly and professionally,” Dillon told VOA. He said the U.S.-led coalition would continue to communicate with Russian forces to ensure the separation of forces does not collapse entirely, and that all sides keep focusing on defeating Islamic State.
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Ukraine Readies New High Court as Reforms Take Hold, Justice Minister Says

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Ukraine could have a new Supreme Court installed by next month as part of judicial reforms aimed at rooting out corruption, Ukraine’s Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said Tuesday.

“I think from October the new Supreme Court will start working,” Petrenko told Reuters in an interview at the Concordia Annual Summit in New York. “The next challenge for us is to establish new appeal courts throughout the country, and to take in new judges in the regional courts.”

Petrenko added that reforms within appeal and regional courts could be in place within the next four years. Other government reforms began in 2014, after a popular uprising driven partly by public anger over endemic corruption.

Ukraine is still dealing with nagging allegations of graft, and Transparency International ranked it a poor 131st out of 176 countries in the World Ranking of Corruption Perception in a report this year.

The selection process for new Supreme Court judges has been questioned by figures including British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who cited concerns in July that Ukrainian government reforms were faltering.

Not ideal, but ‘very good’

Petrenko addressed criticism surrounding the selection, saying that while there are no ideal processes, “this one is very good.”

“We have a democratic society, and all the time there are people who will criticize the process,” he said.

Ukraine currently is the recipient of an aid-for-reforms program from the International Monetary Fund.

So far, the IMF has given the country $8.4 billion, helping it recover from a two-year recession following the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the outbreak of a Russian-backed insurgency in its industrial east.

Under the $17.5 billion program, the IMF wants Ukraine to set up a special court to focus on tackling corruption.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday said he hoped an anti-corruption chamber would be created next month, but expressed doubt that an independent court as envisaged by the IMF could be set up before 2019.
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Interfax: Russia to Pay Damages for Beslan School Siege

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Russia will abide by a European Court of Human Rights ruling requiring it to pay nearly 3 million euros ($3.6 million) in damages for the 2004 Beslan school siege, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday, citing the Russian justice ministry.

Russia used excessive force to storm a school in the small southern Russian town seized by Islamist militants in 2004, causing a high number of hostages to be killed, the court ruled in April.

The three-day drama began when Islamist militants took more than 1,000 people hostages on the first day of the school year and called for independence for the majority-Muslim region of Chechnya.

More than 330 hostages died, including at least 180 children, when the siege ended in a gunbattle. It was the bloodiest incident of its kind in modern Russian history.

The case for damages was brought by 409 Russian nationals who either were taken hostage or injured in the incident, or were family members of those taken hostage, killed or injured, the European Court of Human Rights statement said in April.

On Tuesday, the court said in a press release that its Grand Chamber Panel had rejected a Russian government request to refer the case and said its ruling was final.

“No other actions are being contemplated by the participants in this process,” the Russian justice ministry said in comments carried by Interfax.

In its April ruling, the court said the heavy-handed way Russian forces stormed the school had “contributed to the casualties among the hostages.”

It also ruled that authorities had failed to take reasonable preventive measures, despite knowing militants were planning to attack an educational institution.
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Catalan Mayors Exercise Right to Remain Silent in Referendum Questioning

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The first of hundreds of Catalan mayors summoned to answer questions on why they have backed a banned Oct. 1 referendum on independence from Spain appeared before the state prosecutor on Tuesday amid cheers and chants from supporters.

The first three mayors to declare exercised their right to remain silent, the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) said.

Years of separatist feeling in the industrial northeastern region will come to a head in less than two weeks as the fiercely pro-independence regional government calls a referendum on splitting from Spain.

Madrid has declared the referendum illegal and the Constitutional Court has suspended the vote that was approved by the regional government earlier this month.

So far, 745 of 948 municipal leaders have said they will provide venues for the referendum.

“Voting is not a crime,” said Marc Solsona, mayor of the town of Mollerussa, one of nearly 750 mayors facing charges of civil disobedience, abuse of office and misuse of public funds, as he left the state prosecutor’s office in Barcelona.

“I’m just the mayor and I have to serve my people. I am committed to the people being able to vote on Oct. 1 in accordance with the law passed by the Catalan parliament and what happens to me is not important,” he said.

Solsona smiled, kissed and gripped hands with dozens of clapping supporters gathered outside the state prosecutor’s office as he entered to chants of “You are not alone.”

“We consider ourselves privileged to have a mayor who represents the townspeople above any other interests — political or financial,” said 63-year-old pensioner Angel Tena, who had traveled to Barcelona to support the mayor.

Separately, police continued their search for ballot boxes, voting papers and campaign leaflets on Wednesday, raiding the offices of Spain’s biggest private delivery company Unipost in the Catalan city of Terrassa, Spanish media reported.

Neither the police nor the Interior Ministry could confirm the raid, but footage showed dozens of people gathered outside the company’s offices chanting “Out with the occupying forces,” handing out voting papers and laying carnations on police cars.

Unipost confirmed the raid without giving further details.

Although polls show less than half of Catalonia’s 5.5 million voters want self-rule, most in the wealthy northeastern region want the chance to vote on the issue.
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Third Suspect Arrested in London Subway Bombing

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British police have arrested a third suspect in last week’s bombing on a London Underground train that injured more than 30 people.

The Scotland Yard said Tuesday that the 25-year-old suspect was arrested in Newport, Wales. Police were searching a property in Newport, but they would not release any more details.

Two other men were arrested over the weekend. An 18-year-old refugee from Iraq was nabbed in the port area of Dover, a major ferry terminal for travel between Britain and France, and a 21-year-old from Syria was arrested in the west London suburb of Hounslow, which is home to London’s Heathrow Airport. They remain in police custody, but neither has yet been formally charged.

Islamic State’s involvement discounted

A homemade bomb partially exploded at the Parsons Green station during rush hour.

Images of the bomb posted on social media appear to show a bucket on fire that had been placed inside a plastic bag close to a rail car door.

Islamic State jihadists claimed responsibility for the attack, but Home Secretary Rudd discounted it.

“It is inevitable that so-called Islamic State or Daesh will try to claim responsibility, but we have no evidence to suggest that yet,” she told the BBC. Rudd said authorities will try to determine how the suspects may have been radicalized.

More armed police

Earlier, she had dismissed as “pure speculation” U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim, made Friday on Twitter, that a “loser terrorist” behind the attack was known to Scotland Yard.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the British public may see more armed police on the streets and the transport network. The prime minister also said members of the military will begin aiding police, providing security at some sites not accessible to the public.

The blast was the fifth major terrorist attack in Britain this year.
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Ankara Increases Pressure on Iraqi Kurds Before Independence Vote

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Around 100 Turkish tanks and armored vehicles are massed on the Iraqi-Kurdish border, ostensibly for military exercises, that coincide with a hardening of Ankara’s political rhetoric against the independence referendum by Iraqi Kurds.

Government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said Tuesday the vote is being driven by a sick mentality and warned it threatened to spark regional chaos.

Bozdag said these kinds of steps in the region will ruin regional security and shatter comfort, peace and stability. He added all countries in the region will be negatively affected by it and nobody can tolerate that.

Ankara fears independence by Iraqi Kurds could fuel similar secessionist demands from its restive Kurdish minority.  

Bozdag said a final decision on Turkish action will be made at a National Security Council meeting Friday. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim warned Monday everything was on the table if the Iraqi Kurds went ahead with the vote.

Former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in Iraqi Kurdistan, says there is little Ankara can do to change the mind of Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional president, Massoud Barzani.

“Mr. Massoud Barzani has no choice but to go ahead with this referendum. If not for Iraqi Kurdistan’s future, for his own political legacy. And he has made clear he is not going to run for the president again, already his term expired.

And also he added no Barzani will run in the next presidential elections following the referendum. So he has no choice but to go ahead with this referendum in my mind, and he will not yield to any pressure.”

Despite mounting political and military pressure, observers question whether Turkey would or could back up its saber rattling. Economic sanctions on Iraqi Kurds would be a double-edged sword, while any military action could drag Turkey into a quagmire and possibly isolate the country.

Analysts note the toughest rhetoric is coming from ministers rather than President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a possible sign Ankara is not ready to back its talk with action.
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Congo Leader Opens Peace Conference in Bloody Kasai Region

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Congo President Joseph Kabila declared Tuesday that “justice must be done” as he opened a peace conference in the bloody Kasai region where thousands of people have died in a year of fighting among government troops and militias.

Kabila blamed the unrest on “terrorist militia” and told officials, religious and civil society leaders and former militia members at the conference that all who have contributed to the violence in the once-peaceful region will have to answer for their crimes.

The fighting in the Kasai provinces in Congo’s south began in August 2016 after Congolese troops killed the leader of the Kamwina Nsapu militia. More than 3,300 people have died since then, according to the Catholic church, and the United Nations says more than 1.4 million people have been displaced.

Kabila called on Kasai residents to register to vote, which began last week. Congo’s electoral commission has said the delay in starting registration in Kasai means the country’s long-delayed presidential election cannot be held this year, in defiance of an agreement reached by the government and opposition to hold the vote by the end of 2017.

The opposition has accused Kabila of delaying the vote to stay in power beyond his mandate, which ended in December. The political tensions are one factor behind the fighting in the Kasai region, a stronghold of opposition to Kabila. Some opposition figures from the Kasai region have boycotted the conference. 

The president told the opening of the three-day peace conference in Kananga, the capital of Kasai Central province, that attendees should “remain open to all constructive suggestions” on bringing to justice those who have brought shame on Congo through massacres, decapitations and other serious crimes.

The U.N. has estimated 80 mass graves exist in the region, saying that Congo military “elements” were responsible for digging at least half of those. The government has blamed the Kamwina Nsapu militia for the mass graves.

The U.N. human rights office has warned of ethnic cleansing in the region and urged Congo’s government to prevent further violence.
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Togolese to Vote on Presidential Term Limits; Opposition Angry

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Togo will hold a referendum in the coming days on limiting  presidential terms, after parliament failed Tuesday to put such a change into the country’s constitution.

Announcing the decision to put the constitutional change to a popular vote, parliament head Drama Dramani told lawmakers: “You have voted for the revision of the constitution, but it’s the people who will decide, by referendum, in the next few days.”

Even though 62 of 63 lawmakers present backed the bill to set a two-term limit on the presidency, an opposition boycott meant the vote fell short of the four-fifths majority required to change the constitution.

Opposition members were angry that the measure did not include a clause that would make Faure Gnassingbe’s ongoing presidency illegal and, with the possibility of two more five-year terms, could leave him in power until 2030.

Gnassingbe, now in his third term and whose family has ruled the former French colony for 50 years, had been president since succeeding his late father in 2005.

Thousands of people have joined anti-government demonstrations this month and more protests are planned for Wednesday and Thursday.

Gnassingbe’s opponents have been seeking term limits for more than a decade, to align the former French colony with most of its West African neighbors.
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Russian Helicopter Fires on Spectators During Drills

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A Russian attack helicopter mistakenly fired at least one rocket into a crowd of spectators during a large-scale military exercise in western Belarus simulating a counterattack against NATO forces.

The Russian military acknowledged that a rocket was fired by accident by a helicopter, but insisted that no one was hurt in the incident. It also would not say when or where the incident took place.

However, several Russian online media portals have reported that as many as three people were injured and two vehicles were destroyed.

A video posted on the British news site theguardian.com showed two helicopters flying low over a field where several men dressed in camouflage were watching the drills. One of the helicopters fired several rockets that appeared to hit a vehicle close to the spectators.

The helicopter drill was part of Zapad, a large-scale joint military exercise with Belarus taking place along the border with NATO countries west of Russia.

The exercises, which began Thursday and run through Wednesday, have raised concerns in the Baltic nations that Russia may be using the drills to prepare for a possible future invasion — in the same manner as Moscow prepared for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
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Hamas Invites Abbas to Resume Control of Gaza

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Hamas on Tuesday invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to send officials to Gaza to resume control of the coastal enclave the Islamic militant group seized a decade ago.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said his group is serious about returning power to the Western-backed Palestinian leader and called on him to respond with “practical steps.”

Hamas has said it will dismantle a contentious committee that has governed Gaza in recent months – answering a key Abbas demand. It has also said it is ready to hand over all government functions to Abbas and to hold elections in Gaza and the West Bank.

“We extend a clear and frank invitation without obstacles for the consensus government to work in Gaza,” Haniyeh said after returning from Cairo, where he and other Hamas leaders held rare talks with Egyptian officials.

Hamas is in financial and political distress after years of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade as well as recent economic pressure from Abbas.

The militant group won legislative elections in 2006 and the following year seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’ forces, leaving the Palestinian president in charge of autonomous enclaves in the West Bank.

Several past attempts at ending the rift have failed, and thorny issues remain, including security arrangements in Gaza. Hamas has thousands of armed fighters and a sizeable arsenal of rockets and mortar shells. It has always resisted calls to disarm or place its men under Abbas’ control.

The two Palestinian factions are also divided over Israel. Abbas has recognized Israel and renounced violence, while Hamas seeks Israel’s destruction.

Abbas cautiously welcomed Hamas’ intentions on Sunday as he headed to New York for the U.N. General Assembly.

Haniyeh praised the rapprochement between Hamas and Egypt, which cut ties to the militant group and strengthened the Gaza blockade after the military overthrew an elected Islamist president, who had supported Hamas, in 2013.
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Egypt Says it Will Host ‘Reorganization’ of Libyan Army

Posted on by SeeEA

Egypt said Tuesday it will host the reorganization of Libya’s army, currently an eastern-based force led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter.

 

A statement signed by the Egyptian Committee on Libya said that Libyan military officers who met in Cairo recently chose Egypt as a starting point for plans to unify the army.

 

The group, chaired by Egypt’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Hegazy, didn’t say which officials took part in the meeting, or provide further details.

 

A Libyan officer welcomed the initiative, thanking the Egyptian army “for facilitating such an opportunity for army officers to meet and find common ground.”

 

“The army is open to discussion with all parties excluding terrorist organizations,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief reporters. “The army doesn’t recognize any unofficial armed group but has opened discussions in the hope that militias will disband and join as individuals.”

 

Libya sank into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi. It is split between rival parliaments, governments and militias in the east and west, but in late July its rival leaders pledged to cooperate. Egypt has backed Hifter in his conflict with the Tripoli government and associated militias.

 

The Egyptian statement said the Libyan officers pledge to maintain Libya’s territorial integrity and create a modern and inclusive, civil democratic state based on a peaceful transfer of power.

 

Instability and banditry in the oil-rich country has turned it into a haven for people trafficking and migration to Europe.

 

Italy last month reached a verbal agreement with the country’s western government, led by the internationally recognized but weak Fayez Serraj, to provide equipment, boats and salaries to militias working to stop the flow of migrants.

 

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution welcoming recent efforts to bring opposing sides together, with Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying that the time is right for mediation to restore peace.
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Israel Shoots Down Hezbollah Drone

Posted on by SeeEA

Israel’s military on Tuesday shot down an Iranian-made drone being operated by members of the Hezbollah militant group as the drone approached the Golan Heights, the military said.

According to the Israeli military, the drone was shot down with a Patriot interceptor missile over the Golan de-militarized zone after being launched from an airbase near Damascus.

“As we understand, it was on a reconnaissance mission along the border and the Golan Heights on behalf of Hezbollah,” an Israeli military spokesman, Jonathan Conricus, told reporters.

The Golan area, which separates Israel from Syria, has seen some spill-over violence from the Syrian civil war. 

On several occasions, Israel has used air strikes in the Golan Heights to stop weapons deliveries to Hezbollah fighters in the area.

Earlier this month, Syria’s army accused Israeli warplanes of hitting one of its positions, killing two people in an attack that a monitor said targeted a site where the regime allegedly produces chemical weapons.

Israel and Syria are still technically at war after Israel seized around 1,200 kilometers of land in the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six Day War of 1967.

News of the drone’s downing came just hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to address the U.N. General Assembly about Iran’s rising influence in the region, particularly in Syria.

 
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US State, City Leaders Vow Support for Paris Agreement

Posted on by SeeUS

The White House Monday reaffirmed its commitment to withdrawing from the Paris Climate agreement, saying it poses serious obstacles for the United States. But at the state and city level, U.S. officials say they’re pressing ahead to curb emissions and promote clean energy sources even without Washington’s participation. VOA’s Daniel Schearf reports from New York.
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Trump, Guterres Agree Bureaucracy Makes UN Less Effective

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During his first official meeting at the United Nations, U.S. President Donald Trump said the organization is not reaching its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement. Addressing leaders of more than 120 member nations on Monday, Trump praised U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his efforts to modernize the world body. Guterres said the old fashioned procedures and fragmented structures are making the U.N. less effective than it should be. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Seattle Honors Cambodian Refugee’s Affordable Housing Campaign

Posted on by SeeUS

For Sameth Mell, this is a good week. 

A Cambodian refugee, he learned in May that he had won this year’s community voice award for championing social justice, given by the Seattle International Examiner. 

 

Mell, who works to assist Southeast Asian refugee and immigrant communities, will receive the award at a ceremony on Thursday.

 

The International Examiner, a nonprofit newspaper and website serving the Asian Pacific islander community, has been honoring outstanding Asian leaders across the United States since 1991.

 

Lexi Potter, a community relations manager at the newspaper, said Mell is being recognized for his deep-rooted commitment to helping those underrepresented in society.

 

“Sameth is a force to be reckoned with. We deeply admire the dedication, persistence, and spirit he injects into advocacy work,” she told VOA Khmer.

 

Mell said he was surprised by the award, “because, you know, I do this work not because I want to gain this type of recognition.”

 

“It’s a community imperative, it’s a social justice imperative and a personal imperative for me to actually speak up,” said Mell, 34, a resident services manager at Mt. Baker Housing Association, which is dedicated to providing affordable housing in one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets. Price gains for local homes in Seattle were more than twice the national average of 5.8 percent earlier this year.

 

Like many survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide that killed 1.7 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979, Mell’s family fled their homeland seeking refuge from political instability and war.

 

Born in Thailand’s Kao I Dang refugee camp in 1983, Mell knows poverty firsthand. When he was four years old, he helped his single mother – his father died of leukemia in the camp – feed her five children by going from dumpster to dumpster to collect aluminum cans for redemption.

 

Mell’s family arrived in Seattle, which has approximately 20,000 residents of Khmer origin, in 1985. For most of his childhood they relied on state welfare, public housing and food stamps.

 

Those were trying times, he recalled. Choking on his words and with tears in his eyes, he said, “I’m getting emotional, ’cause that’s a story that a lot of us might not want to talk about.”

 

Velma Veloria, a retired Washington State legislator, is the only Filipina to represent Southeast Seattle’s 11th District. She told VOA Khmer that Mell is engaged and looped in with communities and issues across the board.

 

“He has the right political analysis. He understands people’s places in society and he works to elevate that,” she said.

 

Veloria, who works with Mell at the Coalition of Immigrants, Refugees and Communities of Color, says Mell’s personality makes him a natural-born leader.  

 

“He’s ready and willing to learn,” she said. “He’s not afraid to go out on a limb. He’s been really patient, and he’s encompassing and he has access to a lot of different types of group and people.”

 

William Oung, chair of the Cambodian American Community Council in Washington State, says Mell speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves.

 

“He’s trying to put Cambodian-Americans on the map, working on immigration issues with Philippine and Ethiopian communities, and working on low-incoming housing for the various populations,” he said.

 

Barbara Boyd, 56, a resident of a subsidized housing unit at the Mt. Baker Villager Apartments, says Mell is a veritable resource library for his clients. He provides residents with bus tokens, access to an energy-assistance program and food, so that “we can focus on our other living needs.”

 

Mell elevates the Cambodian-American community to another level, Oung said. “He takes us to the public at large and he bridges the gap.”

 

His next goal, Mell says, is even more visibility for his community: “I want to make sure that other Cambodian-Americans are visible as well. That’s why I helped to build leadership in the Cambodian community.”

 

Former state Representative Velma Veloria has a different vision for her friend’s future: “We need more people like him in the state legislature.”

 
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Hate Crimes Rise in Major US Cities in 2017

Posted on by SeeUS

Hate crimes have jumped by nearly 20 percent in major U.S. cities through much of this year, after increasing nationally by 5 percent last year, according to police data compiled by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino.

The number of hate crimes in 13 cities with a population of over 250,000 rose to 827 incidents, up 19.9 percent from 690 reported during the same period last year, according to the study. Only two cities – Columbus, Ohio, and Riverside, California – posted declines.

Among the nation’s six largest cities, including New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, the number of hate incidents increased to 526 from 431 last year, up 22.4 percent, according to the study. 

In New York City, hate crimes jumped 28.4  percent; in Los Angeles by 13 percent; in Philadelphia by 9 percent; in Chicago, by 8.3 percent,  and in Phoenix, Arizona, by a whopping 46 percent. Houston, the nation’s No. 4 city, bucked the trend, reporting five incidents through July 31, the same number as last year.

Major hate crimes reported this year included the stabbing of an African-American man in New York City in March; the fatal stabbing of two men protecting a hijab-wearing Muslim woman in Portland, Oregon in May; and the killing of a protester in Charlottesville, Virginia last month. 

All were committed by “avowed white supremacists,” said Brian Levin, director of the hate and extremism studies center in California.

If 2017 ends with an overall increase, it would mark the third consecutive annual rise in hate crimes, something not seen since 2004, according to Levin said.

What is a Hate Crime?

A hate crime is often defined as a violent crime motivated by hate based on race, color or national origin, among other factors. 

Most hate crimes go unreported.  According to a recent report by the federal government’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than half of the 250,000 hate crimes that took place each year between 2004 and 2015 were not reported to the police.

The FBI’s annual hate crime report for 2016 is due in November. In 2015, the FBI recorded 5,850 hate crimes, up 7 percent from 5,479 incidents in 2014.  Hate crimes targeting Muslims jumped 67 percent in 2015, the FBI said.

In addition to Muslims, the recent spate of hate-spurred violence has targeted Jews, African-Americans and members of the LGBTQ community, Levin said.

Recent Offenses

The California State University study comes just weeks after violent protests in Charlottesville shone a spotlight on violent racism.  One person was killed and many others injured after a man with known white-supremacist views drove his car into a crowd of protesters.

President Donald Trump was widely criticized for equivocating in his condemnation of the incident, placing the blame on the “many sides” present in Charlottesville, rather than specifically  criticizing the white-supremacist groups who gathered for the rally and marched through the town at night carrying flaming torches and calling out slogans reminiscent of fascist displays in Nazi Germany.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, speaking at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute this week, condemned the incident in Charlottesville, where “we saw and heard people openly advocate racism and bigotry, and commit terrible acts of violence.”

The Department of Justice is investigating the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism.” DOJ “makes it a priority to investigate and prosecute federal hate crimes, particularly in places where local authorities fail to carry out their responsibility to protect civil rights,” Rosenstein said.

Trends

Hate-crime rises in large cities tend to far outpace increases nationally. Even if the current trend continues for the rest of the year, the overall increase in U.S. hate crimes is likely to remain in the single digits.

The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism estimates that the number of hate crimes reported to police throughout the United States last year increased by about 5 percent, topping 6,000 incidents for the first time since 2012. 

Levin, the center’s director, said that hate crimes have increased during every presidential election since 1992. 

Last year, he said, there were “profound spikes” in hate crimes around the Nov. 8 elections. In New York City, for example, 34 percent of all hate crimes reported during 2016 occurred after the vote. 
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Trump’s First Day at UN Focuses on Reform, Iran, Climate Change

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump launched into a whirlwind round of bilateral and multilateral discussions Monday at the beginning of his four-day diplomatic marathon in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly debate, and many meetings on its sidelines.

In his first U.N appearance Monday morning, a day before the General Assembly session formally opens, Trump presided over a session on reforming the world body and called for bold action to make the 193-member organization “a greater force for peace.”

Flanked by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Washington’s U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, Trump told the diplomats at the reform meeting that the organization does not perform as well as it should, and that bureaucracy was to blame. He said the world body must “not be beholden” to the ways of the past.

“We seek a United Nations that regains the trust of the people around the world,” Trump said. “In order to achieve this, the United Nations must hold every level of management accountable, protect whistleblowers, and focus on results rather than on process.”

 

Officials from more than 120 countries were invited to the U.S.-sponsored meeting after agreeing to a 10-point reform plan initiated by the secretary-general.

“The United Nations must become more nimble, effective, flexible and efficient,” Guterres told the meeting. He said the organization’s bureaucratic shortcomings keep him awake at night.

One-on-one with Trump

Later in the day, Trump held one-on-one meetings with France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then had dinner with key Latin American leaders.

Briefing reporters after the two bilateral sessions, the State Department’s director of policy planning, Brian Hook, said both dealt primarily with Iran’s mischievous role in the greater Middle East.

“One of the things that’s common to both … the French and the Israelis, is this deep and abiding concern about Iran’s activities in Syria; and broadly, whether it’s in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon,” Hook told reporters. “One of the things they discussed was not allowing the ‘Lebanization’ of Syria.”

Asked to explain his term “Lebanization,” Hook said: “Iran takes advantage of failed states, and civil wars, and wars generally. It is the kind of environment that is conducive to activating their proxy network, and they are doing that in Syria.”

Obama deals unfair to US

The U.S. official said Trump repeatedly voiced concern that the two international deals signed by former President Barack Obama — limiting Iran’s nuclear program and pledging to work together with other nations on climate change — were unfair to the United States.

“The president focused repeatedly in (these) meetings on fairness. It was a theme he returned to again and again, that he thought (the Paris climate accord) was badly negotiated,” Hook said. “He also thought the Iran deal was badly negotiated.”

Asked whether Trump was open to renegotiating terms of the Paris Accord, or to pushing for a another arrangement that he would consider “fair,” Hook said only that Trump was looking forward to continuing discussions with Macron.

President Trump is “open,” Hook said, “to considering a number of different approaches that properly balance protecting the environment and protecting American workers and promoting economic growth, and not giving an unfair advantage to other countries while America is disadvantaged.”

​Mauro on Trump’s mind

Trump wrapped up his day in talks about the crisis in Venezuela while dining with the presidents of Brazil, Panama and Colombia and the vice president of Argentina.

“The socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro has inflicted terrible misery and suffering on the good people of that country,” Trump said during a brief moment open to the press. “This corrupt regime destroyed a thriving nation by imposing an … ideology that produced poverty and despair everywhere it has been tried.”

Which Trump will show up?

Day Two of U.N. week will feature Trump’s highly anticipated speech Tuesday to the General Assembly. “Which Trump will show up?” is a question on many lips.

As a candidate, Trump belittled the United Nations, claiming it was “not a friend” of democracy, freedom or “even to the United States of America.”

Since he has become president, however, he has said the U.N. has “tremendous potential” and praised the Security Council’s recent votes to stiffen sanctions against North Korea following its nuclear tests and missile launches.

Khalilzad on Trump

Statements about his shifting positions that have often seemed contradictory, confounding many observers and leading to heightened worries both at home and abroad about their effect on international stability. Zalmay Khalilzad, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, said it more a question of Trump’s unpredictability than contradictory comments, and that cuts both ways.

“A degree of unpredictability with adversaries can be useful,” Khalilzad told VOA. “It is said that one of our successful foreign-policy presidents, Richard Nixon, was seen by some of our adversaries as unpredictable. And that affected their actions.”

With allies, however, Khalilzad said that same strategy can breed distrust. “It is important to maintain confidence and to have predictability that we can count on each other,” he said. “There’s no doubt that when push comes to shove, our friends must know that we’re in this together.”
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